The Player
by Hellifrit
Summary: Okay, let's summarise this again, shall we? I am an SI-OC that is transported into Hyperdimension for no reason whatsoever but I take it all in stride. Luckily I won't die too easily cause I am given the power of The Gamer. Right now I need to make sure I take the right weapon for my build and... I just picked up a bow. Oh well, I guess time to rely on my party members. [The Gamer]
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to IF and CH. Only the OC and this story belongs to me._

 _With that said, please enjoy._

* * *

If I'm being perfectly honest, this is one of the fantasies that I wished to happen. Yes, it is shameless but you best not to deny it cause I am sure you do have it once in a while.

What fantasy am I talking about?

I'm sure describing it is better than outright say it. Show what I see than to talk about what I see is my approach. (Though this is a written form story so does it still consider say?)

The very thing I am seeing it now is a purple screen with large letters saying **[Hyperdimension Neptunia]** and underneath the large letters are **[Touch to begin]**.

… I am sure as hell being sent to another world with the Gamer ability. But I wonder why am I chosen for this. As far as I am concerned, from the original series abilities like {The Gamer} can only be manifested through a strong liking or love for a certain concept and Gaia, the being that oversees everything in that world, will gift such ability to certain individuals.

In simpler words, if you like something so much it's part of your life, it has a chance to be manifested as a power.

Since I am in this situation, I guess I can just go along for now. Maybe this one is slightly different than those that I know about.

I touch the **[Touch to begin]** and immediately everything around me turns white. Argh! WHY DO YOU DO THIS GAME?!

When I finally able to open my eyes, I am greeted with another screen. This time there are two options I can choose from: **[New Game]** and **[Options]**.

I guess checking the options first is the best course of action. You never know what kind of default option does the "developers" had given to the players. I shuddered the thought of the default option of a game that I played when I was a child. I never touched it again after suffering trauma from it.

Everything seems normal to me. The only missing options that I can identify are the video settings and sound setting. I suppose there is no need for them because I'm "playing" with my very own body instead of a console.

That is until I find the difficulty option and HOLY SHIT WHAT KIND OF OPTION IS THIS?! What kind of sadist sets the default difficulty as **[God of War and Harem]**?!

I read the description and it says that this is the hardest difficulty of the game. It increases enemy "AI" and damage by 250% and decreases **[Lily Rank]** exp by 50%.

I immediately change the option to **[Normal]** , since I have never played this game before. Once that is done, I exit the **[Options]** menu.

With the setup done (thank goodness for this habit of mine), I touch **[New Game]** and everything turns dark.

I do wonder what new world I will be in. Now I think about it, didn't the title say Hyperdimension Neptunia? I hope I can survive in this new world. Oh, who am I kidding, this is Hyperdimension we're talking about.

Let's just get this journey to begin.

* * *

 **DAY 1: Welcome to Hyperdimension**

* * *

When I managed to open my eyes, I found myself in an alleyway of all places. I suppose it could've been worse, like from the sky, but I think having a better place to spawn is nicer.

Maybe I should check my stats first before beginning my adventure. I open my menu and press the **[Status]**.

 **Name: Helli**

 **HP: 1900/1900**

 **SP:250/250  
**

 **NEXT: 0/25**

 **EXP: 0**

 **Equipment:**

 **Casual Clothing**

 **Stats:**

 **STR: 150; AGI: 110**

 **VIT: 140; TEC: 100**

 **INT: 100; LUC: 90**

 **MEN: 110; MOV: 6**

 **Element Resist: None**

It seems that the game decides to use my usual alias for all of my gaming accounts. But nevertheless, I'm somewhat surprised that I have such high number for my **[Strenght]** of all stats. Then again, I did so some gym but not enough to warrant such a high number.

I guess I can shrug this off since this can help me a lot in the future. Hopefully, most of my stats distribution is focused on the **[Strenght]** stats. Now let's see my skills and… there is none.

This is surprising because there should be at least a skill in every game I've played. Maybe there is a hidden skill I have to obtain? Nevertheless, I should begin my adventure now.

I leave the alleyway and is greeted by a sight to behold.

The buildings I am seeing now is technologically more advanced than my home. Most of the buildings I am seeing are white buildings with purple linings on the edges. The streets are porcelain white and the roads are much smoother than the ones in my homeworld.

But there is one particular building that sticks out the most. A building that towers over all other buildings in this city, Neptower (if my memories serve right). It is a white tower with purple linings all over. It looks more advanced than any other buildings in this city and, to me, looks majestic.

I think I should stop admiring the buildings and start looking for anything I can do. Maybe I can explore around the city and see where it will lead up to. I am confident that I will stumble upon a story event!

I mean, how hard can it be right?

… Maybe I shouldn't jinx it. No time to waste now, time to look for story events!

* * *

It has been about 2 hours since I have been exploring the city, and so far there is one discovery I had found.

I have no clue where to go! I seem to be unable to encounter any sort of 'event-like' scenarios at all.

With almost no way to progress the "game", I need to find a way to survive in this world. I have no Credit in this world and I have a feeling lunch is coming soon. What is worse for me is that I have no place to stay, and being homeless is the last thing I want to happen.

I sigh and scratch my head. "Should I go to the Guild? I don't even have a weapon. I learned basic Muay Thai but I seriously doubt that's enough to kill even Doggos." I mumble to myself.

Just then I notice something sticking out in a nearby rubbish bin. If my eyes aren't deceiving me, that's a compound bow.

I glance around to make sure no one is seeing me and take out the bow. It seems to be in a good shape but has scratches all around it.

If this bow is in this bin… maybe the other equipment is in the bin too. I scavenge the bin for a while and found what I want. The basic pieces of equipment which include the three-finger glove and an armguard. Surprisingly they don't smell and, while slightly worn out, is still usable.

Unfortunately, there is no quiver or any arrows in the bin at all.

When I finally walk away from the bin, I am immediately given several notifications.

 **[You have obtained the following items: Old Compound Bow; Old Glove; Old Armguard]**

 **[Through the following actions, you have assigned to use the following weapon(s) for this run of the game: Bow]**

 **[Through the following actions, you have obtained the following skill(s): Power Shot]**

So this is how I get skills? By having a weapon type locked I will gain skills based on the weapons I have. This is a rather interesting system but not one I never have seen before.

With this, perhaps it's okay to go to the Guild to get a new quest. But right now I have no idea where is the Guild. It may be the hub for Adventurers and Clients alike but in such a huge city, searching for it would be a pain in the ass.

While I am worrying on how should I approach this problem, I notice a familiar brown hair and blue shirt passing by. I quickly turn to that person and, sure enough, is someone I can recognize.

She is a fair skinned girl with emerald eyes and light brown hair that is about waist length. Most of her bangs are long and reach down to her eyes, curling outwards or inwards to her face, with a split on the upper corner side. A few parts of hair frame her face while more of it reaches her chest, about the length of the hair she wears in a ponytail, held with a leafy green hair piece.

She wears a dark blue, oversized jacket with black, silver, and white detailing. Underneath the coat, she wears a black, tank top and short-short style one piece with silver detailing and a belt around her waist. The jacket is worn open and has a big loose belt that she keeps all of her cell phones on. She wears matching dark blue boots.

I tap her shoulder without thinking and, when she turns around, I immediately panic internally. Shit, I didn't even think about the possibility of her being suspicious of me. I mean, I am just a normal looking guy who has a bit too many fats on the waist.

No matter what I convince myself with, I am sure as hell I somewhat look like a creep.

"Is something the matter?" IF ask me. I snap out of my internal monologue and answer. "Yes uh… I want to ask where is the Guild."

"Are you new around here? I don't recognize you and…" I can feel her gaze checking my current equipment and most likely is unimpressed by it. "You're new to this aren't you?"

"Y-yeah. I'm new to this kind of stuff so I have no idea where to go. Pretty stupid of me not doing research right?" I nervously laugh while trying not to embarrass myself further.

She chuckles and gestures me to follow her. "Just follow me since I am going there too."

I quickly start following her and we got into an awkward silence (for me at least). I want to talk to her about anything, ranging from gaming to the world, but that would risk myself either expose I am not a native to this world or paint myself into a weirdo.

Maybe if I talk to her about something mundane? I have a few topics in my mind, and questions too.

"Say, I didn't catch your name did I?" I ask her as an icebreaker. I feel that this is a good way to start.

"The name's IF. So what's yours?"

"Helli. It's what my parents named me and I have no idea why." I lied to her but as of now, the name Helli is my name in this world.

"Let me guess, there are a bunch of people making chopper jokes." The brunette gives me a shit eating grin. All I can do is a surrendering gesture to tell her she is right about it. "Yeah, there is a lot of people who make that kind of joke. But those friends mean no harm."

"I see." She nods and asks another question. "So why did you want to get to the Guild? I don't peg you as someone who wants to be an agent."

"I just want to try getting my very first quest. I always wanted to see if I can try my hands on adventuring." At the corner of my eyes, I notice we just passed through a pudding shop with Purple Heart sign on it. Is it opened by Purple Heart personally?

"Well, good luck on your endeavor then. Maybe if you're lucky you might get to join a small Squad." At that moment I nearly tumbled and try to process the keyword she said. Squad? I never heard of it at all. Is it something I missed when I was playing all the Hyperdimension games?

"I'm sorry but uh… what is a Squad?" I ask her nervously. She looks at me as if I have grown two heads. I am not native to this world and I have no idea about it at all.

"Which rock have you been living in? How can you not know about this new party system?" IF chastises me and crossed her arms, frowning at me for my lack of knowledge. "Alright, I'll explain to you so listen closely. The new party system known as Squad is a system created by the CPUs themselves to allow people to form a large party up to 32 members. The main criteria to create a Squad is you need to find up to four members and you will be given a Squad House."

So the Squad system is similar to a guild in MMOs and some of the tactics games I've played.

"Are there other things I need to keep in mind when making a Squad?" I ask her just in case some things I supposed to know is not known to me.

"Well… I can only offer you this advice. Do not, I really mean it, do not choose quests that your Squad could not handle. I have seen too many people who are too stupid for their own good tackling those quests." She looks at me seriously and I gulp nervously. I can tell she had seen too much already and I have no plans to die whatsoever.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," I reply simply.

As if just right on time, we arrive at a white building with a brown roof and thick horizontal purple linings. I can see that there are many different types of adventurers ranging from the stereotypical ones to more ridiculous ones. Heck, I swear I have seen one who dresses like a swimmer!

"We've arrived. Impressive isn't it?" I could only nod as I admire the building. "Welcome to Planeptune's Guild branch office. Now follow me inside." I follow her into Planeptune's Guild and the hub is much busier than outside.

IF guide me to a holographic terminal and gestures me to a panel. "Put one of your hand there and the terminal will automatically register your membership. It won't take long." I follow what she instructed and the panel analyses my hand. After that, the machine begins to show random words and numbers that move too fast for my eyes to follow.

After a few seconds, a purple panel shows my profile and I got to say, this machine is quite accurate about me.

The name is still **[Helli]** and it shows all of my other physical statuses. I'm 19 this year and my height is 5'10" and weight at 171 pounds. On the top left corner is my face, which shows a young adult with short neat hair. The bang is slanted with the right being the shortest and the left is the longest. In the image, I am wearing a black t-shirt under a red, slightly crumpled jacket, and dark blue jeans. Finally, I am wearing a pair of grey sports shoes.

"Well, it's done. So what do I do now?" I turn away from the terminal and ask her.

"Obviously you should choose your first quest now. How about a level 1 quest?" She taps some holographic buttons and a list of low rank and level appears. I look through the quests and there are a lot of low-level quests for Virtua Forest.

"Sure, I guess I can go for two or three of them?" I tap one that requires me to kill some Doggos, collect Herbs and kill Real Gamers. It shouldn't be too hard for me if I am being careful.

Once I did that another list comes out, this time it shows me available Adventurers who are going to the area. Both me and IF are gobsmacked by the names we are seeing among the long list.

RED and Million Arthur.

"I thought those two would've gotten a Squad of girls themselves but… damn" IF mutters to herself as she stares at the names. I agree with her to be honest. Those two would've been a high-rank solo Adventurers and get themselves an all-girl Squad but… this is just pitiful.

I quickly tap both of their names and press **[Confirm]** to make them part of my party. I just feel that I need to help them.

"Why did you choose them?" IF ask me and I just shrug my shoulder. "I just think they are reliable based on their names." Another lie but there is no need to reveal everything.

"I just happen to know those two anyway so I guess I can help you confirm who they are." I nod and decide to wait for the two. While waiting I ask some more questions to IF.

Apparently, in this world, the events of Megadimension has ended for 3 years and this new system is to help in controlling the ever-growing numbers of Adventurers in this world. I had also asked her whether should I need to buy a quiver and, even though she looks at me weirdly again, she told me that I can produce arrows with next no mana unless I want to create special types.

Base on that information, I can only hope I didn't take the wrong weapon type for my overall build.

After some time, from the corners of our eyes, we can see three individuals coming to our way.

The first one I notice has the appearance of a proud female knight. She has fair white skin, with dark orange eyes, blonde hair and atop her head, is a gleaming crown made of gold and diamonds, at the end of her braid of hair, are two jewels that float encircling the ends of her hair. She dons a silver, black, and red dress with gold lining. Her legs are clad in steel leggings, and underneath them are black stockings. Did I mention that after seeing her for myself, I can say she is a beautiful woman that I might have a crush on if I didn't know she's into women more than men.

Besides her is a fairy-sized young girl and large violet eyes. Her long, pale blue hair is worn in pigtails with multiple braids pulled up on the sides of her head and a white ombre. Her forelocks and bangs blend together, some straightened. Each pigtail is tied with a black ribbon lined in a gradient of violet, lavender, and sky blue. She wears a matching black outfit with material cut out to reveal most of her torso and attached to a pink diamond gem, which connects to the glowing blue circle around her neck. She has white ornate wings with blue and pink gradient diamond gems to match the turquoise gem on her bracelet.

The third one is a young teenager who looks to possibly be a year or two younger than IF. For a small girl, she has a noticeably big bust size. Her skin is fair-pale in tone. She has long crimson hair worn with many bangs framing her face while her hair is worn in the shape of an R on the left side of her head, held with a black rope with two big tan beads. She has white colored stripes in her hair, one on the lower half of one of the R-folds, the other covering almost the whole bang on the right side of her face. Her eyebrows are the same shade of red, while she has gray eyes. This young teen wears a Chinese uniform that is similar to a Hanfu except it looks more risque. The dress consists of black and red colors. The top is dark gray and black with golden lining and ruffles with small red X-shaped strings under her breast and a belt-like piece. At her chest is an opal blue Magatama. She has unattached sleeves with small pink cherry blossom and petal patterns around the bottom, with golden lining and black at the bottom. At the top, just below her shoulders are black ruffles. Her skirt consists of four big petal shapes resembling her sleeves, with a pair of shorts underneath. She wears similar black and red shoes.

I can tell they are Million Arthur, Cheekama and RED respectively. But, as you can tell, RED seems to grow up quite a bit as her height is around IF's elbow.

RED runs up to IF when she sees her and hugs her.

"Wifey! I'm so glad to see you!" This got IF giggling at her antics and lightly push her away from herself. "Yeah I get it, you must've missed me a lot for you to hug me don't you?"

The young teen nods with gleaming eyes and I swear I can also see the background is sparkling. "Of course, you're my first wifey so I miss you a lot! Don't you miss me?" Just then Million Arthur and her friend reach us but didn't say anything. She just watches the scene with interest.

"Yeah, I do. But right now I'm quite busy." She points at me and I merely did a simple greeting by raising my right hand. "This guy here is the one who asks both of you to be part of his party. He's a first timer by the way."

"My name's Helli, nice to meet you all." I greet both of them and exchange a handshake with them. But RED didn't do it, instead, she turns to IF and decides to ask her.

"Why did you ask me to help him? I prefer helping my wifeys." She huffs while I could only retrace my hand and look at her nervously. To be honest, I do expect her to reject my help. But as for Million Arthur…

"I do agree with this young lady here. But it would be against my pride that I do not help a commoner."

Yup, the only reason is her pride. She didn't even bother hiding it too.

IF is about to speak up but I interrupt her. "It's okay, if they don't want to do it then I can try this on my own."

I'm about to leave them alone, but I feel someone stops me by pulling my jacket. When I turn around, it's RED the one who pulls me. I don't get it, she explicitly said she won't help me but why would she stop me?

"I will help you but… you also need to help me." She looks up to me, expecting me to say something. I guess I can hear her out. Hopefully, it's nothing.

"Sure, I'll help. What do you want?"

She leans closer to me so that her face can come close to me. It took a lot of my willpower to not step back and allow her to observe my face. "You're pretty average." She comments and then continues. "But… if you're like any of those protagonists maybe you can help me find a bunch of wifeys!"

Million Arthur agrees on it, and I could only scratch my head. "I can't guarantee on it you know. I'm not some overpowered OC or some smooth talker."

"As long as we are one step closer to our dreams of obtaining our harem we don't care!" Arthur proclaims to me and, without warning, pulls one of my hand towards the exit. "Now that is settled we shall be off to our quest!"

I can hear Chikama silently apologize to me on the way. I can tell she has to deal with her every day and it's getting tiring.

But with that, we are off to a new adventure.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to IF and CH. Only the OC and this story belong to me._

 _With that said, please enjoy._

 _Change note (09/04/19): The SP supposed to be 243/250 instead of max._

* * *

Our destination, Virtua Forest, is a half an hour walk from Planeptune. During our walk, RED, Million Arthur and Chikama made small talks to each other. Occasionally they would ask me general questions. As of now, RED was asking me my preference for women.

"I don't have a specific taste, to be honest." I shrug my shoulder when she looks disappointed. "If I want a woman to be my partner for life then I'll prefer to look for one when I feel like it. I in no rush and I'm still a young man."

RED skips in front of me and tried to do a sexy pose "Are you trying to conceal the fact you prefer sexy looking girls?" I try to cover my blush and probably succeed in it. I nonchalantly walk past her and respond to her.

"I won't deny I like sexy girls, but I am not interested in dating for now. I want to do what I wish and not restrained by a commitment."

I didn't bother to see the girls' reaction to my reply, but I guess they can understand where I come from.

 **[Through your brief interaction with RED, you gain +1 LXP with her.]**

LXP? Does it mean **[Lily XP]**? If that is the case that mild interaction had made her know me better. I do not think I have too many things to learn about. A mediocre background with love for games and other creative media, compare to her, I am nothing.

"Doggo!"

We stop and see a blue, slime-like creature in front of us. It has a pair of black bean eyes and a dog's snout. The creature is currently bouncing happily(?) as if it has no sense of danger.

After all, this creature is often hunted by beginners.

"Doggo!" It barked(?) at us once more.

Million Arthur summoned her weapon, which is a sword with a gold sharp pommel with a black handle. It has a golden handguard with a crystal in the middle and a red fuller with gold patterns adorn it.

"That is one of the vile creatures we need to hunt for your quest. Be care-"

I casually walk past her and step on the Doggo a few times. Each time I step on it the creature would grunt until it turns into motes of data, leaving a blue droplet shaped jelly. I pick up the jelly and put it into my pocket.

 **[Doggo defeated! EXP+ 2]**

 **[Doggo Jelly obtained]**

 **[Achievement get: Not Epic]**

"That was easy," I mumble to myself then turn to the girls. They are slack jaw and stare at me dumbly. Well… I mean it's not every day you see a random person casually step on a monster, do you?

"You… you…" RED shakily points at me which I respond with a shrug. "What? I'm conserving my SP for when I need it." And feels oddly satisfying. But I should keep that to myself.

"Your first battle should be a glorious battle of life and death! Not an anti-climatic stepping!" Million Arthur berates me, and I can't help but be slightly annoyed by it. "Do you want me to waste some of my SP just to make a flashy fight? Against a weak monster no less."

"It doesn't matter what kind of monster it is, you should show us what you are capable of instead of," she gestures where the Doggo used to be a moment ago, "You know…"

"Then it's safe to say I prefer pragmatism than your flashy battle," I replied her coolly and move forward to search for more Doggo or encounter a Real Gamer.

If I am honest, I think we aren't getting along right now. An infight this early isn't a good sign for the future at all. Maybe I can salvage it by being useful when a tough battle comes up? Who knows, maybe Murphy will screw me over.

Oh well, I'll play this game however I want to. Though I do wish I will find common ground with the girls.

"I almost forget, how are we supposed to harvest Herbs? Do I have to look for the actual item itself?"

Cheekama float in front of me and is clearly confused by my question. "You never harvested a material before?" I nod at her, confirming to her that I don't know how. "It's rather easy. All you need to do is look for a Harvest Cube and hope for the best you get your item. A Harvest Cube looks like a small dark blue cube that floats." She turns around then, coincidentally, seem to find a Harvest Cube since she points to the right. "Like that one!"

We walk up to the cube and stares at it. Upon closer look, it's about the size of my palm and it is surrounded by three rainbow colored rings. "What should I do with it? Tap it?" I ask Cheekama while observing it. For some reason, staring it feels fascinating. It's like staring at the abyss, except the abyss doesn't stare back at you.

"Yes and no. You may tap at it to open its contents but it's better to hold it, so the items wouldn't fall."

I grab the cube and hold it on my right hand. The cube disintegrates into motes of data, replacing itself with two pieces of clover-shaped grasses.

 **[Herb (x2) obtained]**

So, this is how I obtain materials in this world. But what about materials for food though? Do I have to buy them from grocery stores? There are so many questions.

"Well, we got 2 of them now. We just need another one." I state to the girls before RED takes it away from my hand and stores them in a red silk pouch with a golden Chinese letter for "Fortune" on it.

"Since I thought you didn't have a Pocket Space Pouch, for now, I'll keep them for now," I grumble and give her a deadpan face. "Aren't you a bit rude to snatch the herb away?"

She shrugs and walks away from me while I just shake my head. Is this how my brother felt like sometimes? Doesn't stop it from being annoying. "Look, I can just put those in my pockets."

"And they will crumble." RED quickly replied and I can see Million Arthur and Cheekama nod at the background. "Fine… but please do tell me where to get those pouches later." I regroup with them and we continue to search around. For our next target.

* * *

 **DAY 1.5: Some tutorial info dumps. Run, from the first boss?!**

* * *

"Can you really that the shot?" RED, who is crouching beside me, asks me. I nod for the second time to reassure her. In my sight, I can see a slow-moving crosshair with a red dot in the middle. The crosshair barely moves away from where I am aiming.

I take a deep breath and focus more on my target, which is a Real Gamer. The creature(?) hunch so much that I cringed when I saw it. This thing here should not exist in my eyes.

I release the arrow and let it fly when the crosshair is right at his head. The arrow pierces through the head like cutting butter with a hot knife, and it immediately disperses into motes of zeros and ones.

 **[Through a repeated action, you have obtained the following skill(s): Headshot!]**

"That should be the last of them isn't it?" I comment to the girls while I wipe off some sweat on my forehead. I should've kept a tab on how many of our targets have been killed so I wouldn't do extra work by accident.

So far, we killed about 3 Doggos and 3 Real Gamers. While we were doing those, we had collected 3 more Herbs. I wonder can I use these extra Herbs for making items.

"Yes, that should be enough to complete the task." Cheekama reply to me. It seems we had silently and unanimously considered her as our task keeper. "With all of these done, we should go back to Planeptune now."

We agree to do so and start to make our way out of the forest. Just as I am going to make my first step, everything around me greys out and everything has gone to a stop.

… What the heck is happening?

 **[Proceed from the current event will lead to a difficult battle ahead. Making preparation now is highly recommended.]**

What? Does this mean as soon as I move from my spot a boss battle will happen?

So far, the Doggos are somewhat few and far between so, I doubt a Giant Doggo can be spawned at all. Real Gamers does not have a boss form at all so what gives?

Fine, if this is what I must do right now I might as well do it. I proceed to open my character status and check how far did I progress.

 **Name: Helli**

 **HP: 1900/1900**

 **SP:243/250  
**

 **NEXT: 18/25**

 **EXP: 18**

 **Equipment:**

 **Old Compound Bow; Protective Gear (Old Glove and Armguard);** **Casual Clothing**

 **Stats:**

 **STR: 150; AGI: 140**

 **VIT: 140; TEC: 130**

 **INT: 100; LUC: 90**

 **MEN: 110; MOV: 6**

 **Element Resist: None**

I didn't level up at all but the equipment I get from the trash bin earlier today did help me increasing some of my stats. Especially my AGI and TEC, which is logical since I am using a bow.

Next, I check what skills I have and takes note of their effects. And, to my surprise, each skill's description sounds odd how I would describe my skills.

 **Skill:**

 **[Power Shot]**

 **Cost: 70**

 **Type: SP Attack**

 **Affinity: Neutral**

 **Category: Phys. Attack**

 **Range: 10.0**

 **Hit Count: 1**

 **Power: 300**

 **Guard Damage: 120**

 **Effect: None**

 **Description: It's just a simple arrow shot that is charged. That's it really!**

 **[Headshot]**

 **Cost: 80**

 **Type: SP Attack**

 **Affinity: Neutral**

 **Category: Phys. Attack**

 **Range: 10.0**

 **Hit Count: 1**

 **Power: 400**

 **Guard Damage: 150**

 **Effect: None**

 **BOOM! Head... oh... they didn't die yet.**

Both skills have the same range and they're single targets, but Headshot takes more SP than Power Shot. Each of those skills has its own advantage and disadvantage that is easily identifiable. I suppose it's all down to how I use them and hopefully I miss none of them.

I close the menu and take a deep breath. Okay… here goes! Boss battle begin!

I take a step forward and the world is filled with color once more. The sudden change disorients me for a second before I get my composure back. Cheekama notices my behavior and comes to me.

"Are you okay? You seem… nervous." Cheekama looks at me worriedly, which I feel odd. We only know each other for hours and yet she is worried about me? Isn't this kind of concern reserve for friends only? Oh well, might as well brush it off to assure them.

"Yeah, I'm cool. A bit nervous about completing our first quest that's all." I reply to her. She lingers for a moment before nodding and asks me to follow them. We walk all the way back to the main path and…

"Did you hear that?" RED asks us. We look around, with me being far more anxious than Million Arthur, to look for the sound.

I can hear it, sounds of something gigantic walking. It is fast too so it is chasing something or someone. I turn to the left and found dust clouds are coming to our way. I squint my eyes to see a small shadow that is… running away from the cloud.

"Is that someone running away?" I state what most of them are thinking. As the dust comes closer, I produce an arrow, prompting the girls to summon their weapons from their hammerspace. "I got a bad feeling about this."

I calmly pull the string and take aim. I can see the crosshair comes back into my vision and it is moving more frantically. I suppose it resonates with my current emotion, which would be nervousness.

"Helli… I don't think we should stay here." RED speaks up and moves slightly backward. It seems I'm not the one who is scared about what is coming to us. As the cloud comes closer, I can make out a girl running towards us and… a dragon?!

WAIT WAIT WAIT! DON'T TELL THAT'S A…

"Is that an ANCIENT DRAGON?!" Cheekama exclaims and begins to panic. The rest of us quickly turn around and dash away. "RUUUUN!" I shout at the top of my lungs and mad dash away from the giant monster. There is no way in hell I can fight that thing. Who in the right mind thinks I can fight such a powerful monster.

I pause for a second to turn around and take aim once more. The crosshair forms itself and moves frantically. "What are you doing?!" Arthur (The full name too mouthful)is surprised by what I am doing now.

I ignore her and focus, as soon as it aims at the head of the dragon. It won't hurt it much but if it distracts it… I'll do it!

" **Power Shot!** " I release the powered-up magic arrow and let it soar. I note the main difference of the normal shot and Power Shot is the latter comes in the form of a thicker arrow. The magic arrow hums in the air and explodes on contact with the Ancient Dragon.

The dragon stops for a moment, allowing the running girl to create a distance. I turn around and catch up with RED and Arthur. Both girls turn to me and ask me at the same time. "Did you get it?"

"No, but I did buy a few seconds."

The dragon roars, and we know we must make haste. I put more energy into running away and occasionally I would glance back to see how the girl is doing. It seems the girl is catching up to us and after a few glances, I can confirm who she is.

Sporting a pair of orange eyes and short boyish cut, rusty brown-red hair usually worn with a headband. She wears a white tank top with a brown belt-like segment on the top and bottom, underneath a blue and white jacket with gold accents. Her skirt is white with thick strips of blue in the center and worn with a brown belt with gold details and a small orange and black pouch attached. She also wears black fingerless gloves, black stockings, and blue boots with white, black, and gold accents. At her back, she has a guitar case at her back.

It's Falcom, I think she is the one that aggro the dragon and now we are in this situation. She managed to start catching up to us and, I think she saw RED, immediately greet her.

"It's been awhile RED, I'm so sorry to let us meet in this situation!" Well, I think I'm right, she is the one who caused the dragon to chase after us! "Oh, don't worry about it, just tell us how it happens Falcy." Falcy? When did she… never mind, must be some offscreen event. But doesn't stop me from wondering why they are acting so cheerfully at this moment.

"Hate to ruin the reunion but we have a dragon at our back!" I told the girls and all of us push ourselves to run faster. Once again, I attempt to shoot the dragon with **Power Shot** to distract it and thus drain my SP even more. We are getting further from the dragon, but I doubt we can run away far away enough to lose it.

If my calculation in my head is right, it should be about 103 SP left. I can't afford to shoot even more.

"I can't distract the Ancient Dragon anymore. I can only make another **Power Shot** to slow it down." I clicked my tongue and try to formulate plans in my head as quickly as possible. The stomping sound can be heard once more, and I know the dragon is catching up. I just have no idea why it chases after us no matter how far we run.

"What are we going to do? We obviously don't have the stamina all day to get to Planeptune." Arthur asks me. An idea forms in my head and I ask everyone. "Do anyone of you have a communication device now?"

Alright, they shook their heads- wait what? "None of you have it?"

"Mine's broken." Falcom scratches her cheek, most likely embarrassed by it.

"I didn't charge it yesterday," RED says.

"What's a communication device." I thought Arthur is kidding, but looking at Cheekama, she is serious about it.

"Great, there goes the plan for asking CPU to help." I sarcastically state. Fine, if that doesn't work then… I suppose this is my only plan!

"You girls go ahead…"

Before I can finish what I want to say, a gigantic shadow looms above us and all of us jump into different directions. I clumsily roll and managed to get myself fast enough to see that the dragon is standing menacingly in front of me.

I try to squeeze down the nervousness inside me and gulp down a bit of saliva. I have no idea why it looks at me so intensely unless it works like an MMO where I take most of the aggro from it. But nevertheless, I know I am screwed now.

Unless I do this insane, stupid move.

"Hey! Follow me, dumb dragon!" I dash away from the dragon and, as I expected, it starts to follow me into the off-road. I barely can catch the girls' surprise face before I shout back to them. "Get the CPUs! I'll be back!"

I dash around the forest and evade as much tall surface as possible, and I can tell the trees behind are tumbling down and crushed by the dragon.

I turn around quickly and pull another **Power Shot** … that is if I didn't notice I am falling down on my back.

"Wha…" I managed to muster to mumble that bit before I can feel something hit my back, probably water as I slowly sink into it.

And… I… can't… breath and… see…

Shit.


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to IF and CH. Only the OC and this story belong to me._

 _With that said, please enjoy._

* * *

…

…

"Gah!" THAT IS TOO CLOSE! I almost drowned and get a " **Game Over** ", right at the beginning no less.

I look around and I can safely say that… whoever dig this pit is an ass. I mean who drops a person into a deep pool and then leave it to luck to see if that person survives?! It's a miracle I didn't break any of my bones at all.

I look up and I can tell it is impossible for me to climb this hole out. The sky looks so far away and thank goodness it is still blue. It would be bad if it is in orange hue. Oh wait, I would be dead if it is evening.

I sigh and open my character status to check my current HP and SP. Hopefully, in that short time, I manage to recover a slight amount of SP back. Though I highly doubt that as the entire game system is heavily base on HDN itself.

Though now I notice that there is no **HUD** for my status, weird. I will check it in the **Settings** later once I check my stats.

 **Name: Helli**

 **HP: 500/1900**

 **SP: 33/250**

 **NEXT: 18/25**

 **EXP: 18**

 **Equipment:**

 **Old Compound Bow; Protective Gear (Old Glove and Armguard); Casual Clothing**

 **Stats:**

 **STR: 150; AGI: 140**

 **VIT: 140; TEC: 130**

 **INT: 100; LUC: 90**

 **MEN: 110; MOV: 6**

 **Element Resist: None**

Yikes, it seems I take quite a lot of damage and my SP is nearly depleted. I guess I can only make 33 more normal shots before I am a dead man for sure. But I'm worried about the Ancient Dragon and the girls. Will Neptune and the others get here in time to take it down? I don't know but I know my current objective is to get out of here.

But first, **HUD**. I open up the **Settings** menu and search around for the **HUD** option and, lo and behold, turns out I can turn it on… only in dungeons. Fair enough I suppose, since there won't be any battles in the safe zone.

Once I turn it on, at the top right corner of my vision, there is my **HUD** for my health and a picture of… a girl?

Huh? Why is it a girl? I am a boy, so it shouldn't be a girl. Wait a second… is it me or my chest feels heavier?

"What the heck?" I mumble to myself and look down to my chest. Sure enough, there is a pair of large… balls attach to my chest. I poke the side and I can feel my finger poke it. Then I proceed to touch my crotch area and… it's gone.

Oh god…

OH MY GOD!

"AHHHHHHHH!" I scream at the top of my lung like how Noire screams. In fact, my voice sounds like a slightly higher pitched version of Black Heart's voice.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?! WHY AM I A GIRL? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING OOOOOOOOON?!" I continue to scream like a madman… I mean women? I don't care, all I need are answers.

I take a deep breath to calm down and decide to see my very own face. I have a beautiful and somewhat cute face, a pair of brown eyes and a brown messy bob hair. My arms and legs are thinner and, obviously, I am somewhat shorter.

I feel that this would how I look like if I am a girl, especially since the brown features I have are features my mother has. In fact, besides the messy hair, I am quite close to what my mother used to look like.

"Sigh… alright, let's see if I can get out of here." I look around and found a tunnel with various colored crystals illuminating the tunnel. This tunnel… maybe it was being dug by whoever made this stupid pit.

"Guess I have to suck it up and… deal with it." I walk into the tunnel and hope for the best.

Maybe I can even get some EXP on the way-

 **[Achievement get: Genderbender]**

I hate you, game.

* * *

 **Day 1.9: I've become what?! True First Boss Fight in a crystal cave!**

* * *

RED is normally not someone who would retreat from battles. In fact, if it is an uphill battle she would gladly take up the challenge! Especially if it is for gaining the affections of her wifeys!

But this time, she would rather survive for now. No one, she means no one, would face an Ancient Dragon head to head without extensive preparations. So, by the time the three girls got to the border of the dungeon, they immediately hope there is someone who has a communication device.

Thank goodness they did find a newly formed Squad that just so happen to be questing in this dungeon.

"Please borrow us your phone!" Falcom immediately claps her hands together and bow down her head in desperation. RED could understand why, as there is a guy risking his life to ensure the dragon is as far away from them and waiting for backups.

The adventurer took out their phone while being confused about what is happening. But with how desperate Falcom sounds, perhaps doing so is not bad. As soon as the phone is given, Falcom dial the number to a certain brunette to inform her of the situation.

" _Hello, this is IF you're speaking._ " IF speaks in a professional manner, as it is an ingrained habit she has whenever she receives an unknown caller.

"It's me, Falcom. We're in a desperate situation now and we need backup." Falcom speaks quickly, but slow enough for anyone to follow. "We got an Ancient Dragon in Virtua Forest and there is this one guy who is with RED is distracting it from us."

" _WAIT WHAT?! ANCIENT DRAGON AND A GUY WITH RED?!_ " IF shouts through the phone, forcing Falcom to move the phone away from her right ear. " _Alright, I got it. I'm sending an Emergency Quest to the Guild and hopefully, I can get Nep's help._ "

With that, the line died and Falcom gives the phone back to the owner. RED and Arthur look back at the forest, worried about the new guy.

"Backup will be coming in a moment, for now… we can only hope the True Goddess keeps him safe."

The phone lets out a beep, signifying a notification or message has been sent into the phone. The newbie opens up and gestures everyone to see the message.

 **[Emergency Quest: Eliminate the Ancient Dragon sighted in Virtua Forest]**

 **[WARNING: This quest can only be taken by Rank A to EX Squad/Adventurer as death may occur]**

 **[Description: An Ancient Dragon has been sighted in Virtua Forest in Planeptune. Nearby Adventurers with the necessary skill are required to go to the dungeon and eliminate the threat. Purple Heart/ Purple Sister may assist in this quest when response teams are not powerful enough to eliminate said threat.]**

 **[Side Emergency Quest: Rescue a male adventurer, description will be given upon taking this Side Quest.]**

"It seems that wifey did quite the quick work there." RED mumble to particularly no one. Right now, all the three girls could only hope the rescue team will come in time so that all of them could join them in killing the dragon.

* * *

It feels like hours since I walk into the tunnel. So far there are no branching paths at all, it's straight forward and almost everything I see is the same. The tunnel is dark and the only thing that illuminates my path are the crystals.

It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness and so far, nothing, in particular, is happening.

"Kinda appreciate this though. Who thought to give me an Ancient Dragon as my first boss is a good idea." I said to myself… with my new female voice echoing in the tunnel. I could never get used to my new situation, and probably never.

"Doggo!" I turn to my right and, sure enough, there is a Doggo in sight. Oh wait, there are more coming in. Two, three… seven… oh dear please don't be what I'm thinking.

The Doggos start to pile up on each other and… it starts to merge together. I quickly run away, I want to avoid this Boss Battle no matter what. I don't care if it is the easiest boss ever, but I am not in good shape to fight it.

The tunnel starts rumbling and, in the worse possible timing, I turn, and I swear I am seeing the Giant Doggo is glowing red eyes dashing towards me.

I immediately pull an arrow out, losing 1 SP and let it loose. The arrow hit the boss, but it seems negligible as the boss just let the arrow sink in and continue the chase.

"I will not be a tentacle doujin victim today!" I push myself even further and run faster. Please, dear Goddess Purple Heart hear my prayers, don't let me lose what is precious to all girls to this Doggo.

I keep running until I reach a large cave that is about the size of an arena. The walls have brighter crystals that give me better lighting and at the roof of the cave is a gigantic white crystal. The light that is given off from this particular crystal made the cave a bit warm.

But now is not the time to bask in the warmth as I find myself in a dead end. I turn around and prepare myself for the upcoming battle. All I can hope for now is this wouldn't take too long.

The Giant Doggo and I see some difference from the other kinds of Giant Doggos. This one has red eyes (no wonder it glows in the dark) and it's dark blue instead of the usual light blue. The monster squishes itself down and hops into the air.

I run to the right and pull out another arrow, waiting for to land. It did land and cause the cave to rumble. I stumble and almost let go of the arrow. I am sort of glad for the crosshair in assisting me, so I can shoot well even when I am unstable. The arrow flies and pierces the nose, which seems to deal a lot of damage as the Boss trash around in pain.

I dodge around or side step from the boss when it goes to my direction. I fear what would happen if I get hit by it and I don't want to risk losing more SP without a confirm shot.

The trashing stops, and I get ready to shoot, this time I won't let it do anything. So, I shoot once and without waiting to see where the arrow hit, I pull out another one and shoot. The first one hit the right eye while the other one hit the slimy body.

Like before the second one got absorb, but I can tell it is in pain. Well, I suppose what to do now. Hit the "solid" part while avoiding the boss. Simple and I should be able to take it down easily.

"Kinda like Dark Souls to be honest," I comment to myself. All I need to do now is shoot, dodge, shoot and dodge again. It needs a lot of concentration and I need to try to predict when to shoot. The Doggo trash around once more and I dodge roll through the attack.

I wonder… should I take Hawkeye as an example. As soon I got into position I quickly pull another arrow. This time I wait for the crosshair to be at any of its "solid" parts while it thrashes around.

"Almost there…" The Doggo rolls horizontally this time and…

"Now!" I let it loose and it damages the nose again. But this time the arrow sinks into its… jelly flesh. The boss stops moving, and everything is just… silent.

Did I do it? It's only a few shots and it stops the boss? I mean, maybe those shots where it feels pain are critical hits? I have no idea.

The boss glows brightly and it shatters into motes of data like its other brethren. I sigh and plop down on the floor, not caring is it a hard surface or not. I look at the giant crystal at the roof and… as if feeling like catching it, I raise up my hand and grasp the air.

"Ha… I did it… my real first boss." Just then a familiar sound… the sound of the level up jingle in Megadimension.

 **[Giant Cave Doggo defeated! EXP +20]**

 **[Level up!]**

 **[Lv 1 (to) Lv 2]  
[Helli]**

 **HP: 1900 (to) 2150**

 **SP: 250 (to) 300**

 **STR: 150 (to) 162; AGI: 140 (to) 159**

 **VIT: 140 (to) 155; TEC: 130 (to) 170**

 **INT: 100 (to) 120; LUC: 90 (to) 100**

 **MEN: 110 (to) 130; MOV: 6**

 **[ 50% of HP and SP has been restored]**

 **[Achievement get: True First Boss Slain]**

So… I get to restore my 50% of my HP and SP upon **Level Up** and a bunch of stats up. And to say the stats up have an effect on me is an understatement. I feel more powerful than before… a lot more too.

I sit up and look at my current health and… it seems it's around 55% for both HP and SP.

"Now then, how do I get out of here." I stand up and look around. Without a boss trying to kill me, I can admire how beautiful the cave is. It looks like something out of a CGI made image but… this is real. I notice some Harvest Cubes around, so I might as well take some items from them.

I take them one by one, and the result is quite satisfying.

 **[Red crystal (x5) obtained]**

 **[Blue crystal (x4) obtained]**

 **[Purple crystal (x4) obtained]**

 **[Black crystal (x3) obtained]**

 **[Green crystal (x3) obtained]**

All these crystals seem valuable, so I suppose I can use them as materials for sale… or for something else that I have no idea of. As I am harvesting more, I notice a particular crystal on the floor. It looks like a miniature version of the giant crystal on the roof. I pick it up and surprise by how warm it is.

"Did it fall from the giant one while I was fighting?" I examine the crystal and mesmerize by how beautiful it is.

 **[Unknown Crystal Obtained]**

An Unknown Crystal? What is this? A key item? Do I need to identify it?

I can't ponder more about it as the cave shook violently and I nearly fall on my butt. Just then, one part of the wall breaks into boulders, revealing a new path. The shaking stops but… what was that? Is there something happening out there that warrant this kind of quake?

I quickly leave the cave through the new path, hoping that nothing bad is happening.

* * *

It's total chaos IF admit that. Right now, the backup team has arrived, and everyone is now engaging the Ancient Dragon, including some of her old allied like RED, Falcom, Million Arthur and Compa. There are other Adventurers around to fight the powerful monster and all of them are bombarding the dragon with various **SP Attack**.

The Planeptune CPUs, Purple Heart, and Purple Sister are also engaging in battling the creature.

" **32-Bit Mega Blade**!" Purple Heart summon a gigantic pixelated blue blade in the air and launch it on the creature. It took the damage but it still alive.

"How is this Ancient Dragon a lot harder than usual? Usually, we would kill it in 5 minutes time!" One of the female Adventurer questions to particularly no one. She cast another ice type **SP Attack** on the monster, an icicle that is formed on the tip of her wand and shoots off in a high speed. It hits but shatters upon contacting the dragon's scale.

IF takes a sip of Nep Bull and dash back to the front line, helping fellow front-liners dealing some chip damage and try to take some of the dragon's attention to herself so that the CPUs can send in some powerful attacks.

The Wind Walker of Gamindustry duck down from a tail whip and quickly slash it with her Qatar. It deals negligible damage but it is fine for her. Any damage is good for such a tough monster. It is then she notices the wound she dealt slowly close up.

"It's regenerating from attacks! That thing has freaking Regen!" She informs everyone in the area and to some, it seems hopeless as they now know no matter how hard they attack, the monster will shrug it off and continue its rampage.

"Them we just need to hit it harder!" Purple Heart exclaims in the air, not losing any hope yet.

"Right! Let's use our most powerful move together sis!" Purple Sister respond to her sister and both of them charge up for their **Formation Skill**. Knowing what the sister are doing, IF temporary retreat and reach Compa.

"Compa, let's use **Heart Force** to try and deal more damage on it." Compa nods and both of them get into action. Each of the girls stands on the opposite side of each other and got ready.

"Let's go, Compa!"

"Okay!"

IF conjures up a purple magic circle while Compa merely made a heart gesture. Both of them sends out a black and white laser blast respectively towards the dragon at the same time, colliding at the dragon and then it blows up. The blast then recoils back, but it didn't damage the environment from the blowback.

"Now's our turn. Let's do it Nepgear!" Purple Heart and Purple Sister conjure a yellow platform at their back and both kick off it, dashing towards the dragon at the same time.

"I'll do my best! Hyah!" She goes down with an overhead slash and then follows up with another horizontal slash. The second attack pushes the dragon a few feet away. While it happens, Purple Heart fly under the dragon and then made a belly up, ending the combo with a dimensional breaking slash. The slash then explodes twice, heavily damage the dragon.

The dragon falls on one knee, and there are visible wounds all around it and everyone knows it is time to take it down.

" **Headshot**!" A girl's voice that sounds almost like a higher pitched version of Black Heart's voice.

A thin arrow flies zip through the air at a high speed, which IF nearly couldn't see it, and it pierces through the dragon's head and its left eye. The dragon roar in rage, but instead of turning into the motes of data it immediately uses its wings to create a dust storm, blinding everyone.

"Argh! What the heck?!" Falcom covers her eyes and tries not to be pelted by the rocks in the dust storm.

When they are barely able to see, the dragon has already flown far away enough to be out of range. The girl clicks her tongue and gets near the group.

"Damnit… here I though **Headshot** could've killed it." The girl sigh in frustration before she turns to the group and gives a sheepish smile.

"So… did I come in the wrong time?"

* * *

Well, I guess I did come at the wrong time since everyone asks me who I am, which… I could only reply honestly. Most of them ask IF did she get the information wrong, which technically she's not but due to my… new circumstance I could only try to help her diffuse the confusion.

"So… you fell into a pit of deep water, and when you got out of it you become a girl." IF summarize my circumstance and look at me dead in the eye. She must be really pissed by how I indirectly give the girl so much trouble on the first day of knowing me.

"That and I fought a Giant Cave Doggo." I decide to keep quiet about the crystals for now. I don't want the beautiful cave to lose all of its lustre from the crystal. Maybe I should name the cave soon? Maybe, but for now, IF is still mad at me.

"Right, so then are you okay now?" I nod and look at my bandaged arm. I glance at my health and my HP is slowly regenerate. It seems I regenerate instead of immediately heal.

"Good, now I think there are some people want to see you." IF stands up and leave me alone with the girls.

RED, Arthur and Falcom walk towards me and sit down on their own rocks. "Are you okay?" Falcom asks.

"Yeah… could've been better though." I reply and stretch. I suddenly feel something is wrong… until I hear RED wolf whistle at me. I immediately feel a blush coming on my face and heartbeat increases all due to me realizing that I am a girl… and I do not have the proper wear to cover some parts.

"Wowee, you are quite the beauty now..." RED looks up and down at my barely soaked body, with some features that I do not want to describe at all. I instinctively cover my body from them and turn away from them.

Arthur and RED's analytical eyes are very uncomfortable for me. I squirm a little under their gaze, feeling I want to die. Those two lesbians... darn it why am I their prime target now?! I am reconsidering making a Squad with them now. My body is in danger. I want to die! Why did fate is so cruel that they decided to change my gender and MAKE me beautiful?! I don't want beauty, I WANT TO BE A PRETTY BOY DAMMIT!

Falcom then comes to my rescue, by saying "Alright girls, leave him… her… alone." I guess she's still unsure what to call me for now.

"I would prefer him…" I said it quietly, but I'm sure they do hear what I said. We hear a growling sound and I turn to my stomach, realizing that it's already evening, and I haven't eaten anything at all since coming to this world.

"So, uh… should we go back?" I ask the girls. All of them agree and they stand up with me, leaving the forest.

 **[Achievement get: Les-magnet]**

Again, I hate you game.


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to IF and CH. Only the OC and this story belong to me._

 _With that said, please enjoy._

* * *

The return trip back to Planeptune is rather interesting in a way. On the way back, IF had decided to follow us as a group just so, as she claims, I wouldn't get into trouble again. It's slightly annoying but I digress. As for Falcom, we properly introduce ourselves to each other and RED being RED asks her does she want to make a new Squad with us.

The older redhead agrees to us, and thus it solidifies the chance to turn our new team of four into a new, small Squad.

"So, since all of you can make a Squad, do you have any name in mind?" IF asks us. RED is the first to suggest, but all of us turn it down as the name is too self-centered and… stupid. I didn't even bother to remember it as soon as we move on to the next.

Arthur suggested "Royal Knights of Game Table", but we refused to use it as none of us are… knightly to say the least. (That and I get the reference) Falcom couldn't come up with a good name that represents all of us, so it is up to me to choose one.

Now, if I am to name a group for a rag-tag group like this… what can I go for? Maybe…

"Crystalline. How about it?"

The girls ponder for a moment as I am sure my name is rather simpler than what they would think. The main idea of that name would be that we are "rough around the edges" as a team in the beginning, and eventually become "polish" as time goes. The name crystalline refers to an object having the structure of a crystal, and there are many gems that are considered crystalline anyway so why not.

"Hm… I like it." Falcom agrees and follows up with her reason. "It's simple and somehow it sounds feminine." RED and Arthur agree too, thus we choose the name **Crystalline**. IF, who is listening to us the whole time, closes her flip phone and turn to us.

"I just contacted one of my colleagues to do most of the signup. Just go to the Guild and let the receptionist help you do the finalization." We give our ok's and continue our way to the Guild.

The rest of the day gone by quickly, with us doing the finalization for the formation of the Squad then turning in our Quests. Overall, we earn a hefty amount that could allow us to last a week, according to Falcom.

But that is if one of us is a local resident. Remember, I'm considered an alien in this world.

"Say, do you girls mind helping me get some supplies? I… don't have anything with me." I emphasize my point by tugging my shirt collar and… the subtle poking of my nips on the shirt. This is embarrassing.

The girls look at each other and grins. I know it! They're planning to make me a dress-up doll now! "No dress-up doll. I want to get my clothes as soon as possible and we're going to the **Squad Home**."

RED and Arthur deflate, knowing that their plans have been foil. Good for me because I don't plan to wear a dress and probably would never wear one.

Once we've brought my supplies and eat for the night, we go to the new **Guild Home**. It is a two-story semidetached house with white wall and brown slanted roof. RED and Arthur decide they will return to their home and meet me and Falcom the next day. I'm slightly shocked that both do have a home since it is never mentioned in the previous games that they have a home. Then again, why should the games ever mention it?

After that, Falcom and I decide to turn in for the night.

* * *

 **Day 2.1: A New Day and Guild House. Mundane Quests acceptance**

* * *

 **[You are well rested! HP and SP have been fully recovered! Bonus Stats buff is given to [AGI]!]**

 **[Achievement get: Sleepy Head]**

The very first thing I see… I internally sigh as I thought that is this game trying to mess with me.

Oh well, I could see that sleeping can give me a bonus stat up. I sit up and rub my eyes to remove some dirt out of my eyes and it takes me a moment to realize two things. One, I am not at home and two, I am a girl now.

The new room that I am given has a blue wall, some basic furniture, and a private bathroom. I leave the warm bed and start my morning ritual. When I finally begin to take off my clothes, I blush at my own body. It's your body Helli, just quickly get this done and dress up.

I bath as fast as possible, but I struggled for a moment when I tried to wash my new hair. It tangles time to time when I roughly wash it, which how I usually wash my hair. Once I wash myself, I left the bathroom with a set of simple purple lingerie.

I can't help but stare at myself for a second and then snap myself out of my trance. I open the closet and choose what clothes I want to wear for today. Darn, now I'm acting like a girl when it comes to choosing clothes.

It didn't take long for me to choose what clothes I wish to wear. I wear my clothes then my red jacket to complete the look. The clothes I wear is a black t-shirt with a yellow logo of a laptop with the letter "E" in its "screen". For my bottom half, I wear tight fit jeans and a belt with a self-defense buckle. I turn the dial in the middle of the buckle and two knives pop out on the side. Since it's functioning I think I'm good to go.

I leave the room that is on the second floor and the smell of bacon hit my nose. Its smells nice, maybe better than me since I do cook too.

Reaching the dining room, I found Falcom is still cooking some bacon.

"Morning Falcom." I greet the redhead. She turns around and gives me a great smile, greeting me back. "Morning to you too Helli. Do you not mind waiting for a moment until the breakfast is done?"

"I wouldn't mind," I shrug my shoulders and walk into the kitchen. "But do you mind some helping hand? I know my way around a kitchen."

She chuckles and flips the bacon around to cook the other side. "I would take up for it if I'm not close to finishing it. Thanks for offering." Well, seems like I wake up a lot later than her.

 **[Through your brief interaction with Falcom, you gain +6 LXP with her.]**

6! Wow, that seems to be a lot. Now I think about it, I wonder what is the level up limit?

"You're welcome. I'll wait at the dining table then." She nods, and I left the kitchen to the dining room. Since I'm alone now, perhaps I can look through my menu and explore what the game has to offer.

Looking through the menu, I found the **Party** menu on the list. It seems that it unlocked without me knowing at all since I couldn't find it yesterday. I press it and a new menu comes up to me.

In the **Party** menu, it seems that Falcom is currently the only member that the game registered as part of my team. Neither of us is designated as the team leader and, to my surprise, her level is 5. That's… odd. I mean we run from an Ancient Dragon due to how powerful it is but to see her level this low…

It's a bit scary.

All her previous progress is gone, like Thanos's snap does affect people's level. Maybe I can ask her why is her level this low? It would be suspicious for me to ask her about her strength out of nowhere. Maybe I can twist my words around so that it sounds like I want to help her? Gosh… I must manipulate my words for useful information once more don't I?

"Helli?" I jump out of my seat with a squeak when I hear Falcom calling me out beside me.

"Falcom doesn't scare me like that!" I exclaim to her as I try to recompose myself from the shock.

She gives me a sheepish smile and apologizes to me. She lays out breakfast and before we eat, she asks me something. "What's on your mind just now? You seem serious for a moment."

I hesitate for a moment. How can I tell her I want to know what happens to her previous powers without exposing myself? I want to be honest with her but as far as I am concerned, many people will not believe you are from another world at all.

Perhaps… Perhaps I should twist my words here.

"I'm just… thinking about which role I should give myself for the team." Yeah… maybe a support role or something since bow and arrow isn't the best in fast-paced battle. "I feel like I'm the weakest among all of you since I barely have any experience." The harsh truth, as I am clearly a lot lower than them and I never fought before.

Falcom smiles at me, and I can tell she wants to comfort me. "Don't think about it too hard. Believe yourself that you can contribute more than you think. I can tell you'll be great in the future."

Believe me… I would do that if my previous experience didn't tell me something else.

"I'll.. try I suppose. But I think all of you are still much better than I am."

Falcom chuckles as we begin to eat breakfast. She took a bite before continue speaking.

"Trust me, we're much weaker than we used to be since we didn't fight to our limits as much as we used to be. It might take a while to bring our strength back to how we're used to be."

So that's how they refer to their levels. And their level got degraded due to lack of intense battles throughout the years past the games where they were in. If that logic is applied… then wouldn't Neptune be as weak as I am?! Then how did she fight the Ancient Dragon with Nepgear so well?!

This is a little confusing.

"I see… does this apply to the CPUs?" I ask her to confirm the logic behind this. I must know how the level system works in this word.

She shakes her head then replies. "No, the CPUs gain their strength base on how much Shares they have. But if it is their base strength… perhaps?" The redhead sounds unsure about the last part. I wouldn't blame her I guess. At least it clarifies the fact that one, CPUs' powers are base on Share than their level. Two, I theorize that their level is only used for increasing their base power and Shares are there to push their power limit.

"Thanks for clarifying Falcom." I wipe the oil off my mouth with a piece of tissue and gulp down a cup of milk. I have no idea why Falcom giggle at my behavior, it seems normal to me.

"What's so funny?" I make sure my tone doesn't sound offended and more like curious to her. I don't want to make her feel slightly scared that she offended me.

"It's just that even though you are a girl now, your behavior seems like a boy."

"Oh." I guess she's used to some girls being prim and careful when it comes to table manners.

"I got this from mother, so I got used to doing this." Falcom seems intrigued when I mention mother. I'm not sure should I tell her about my family. On one hand, it makes us have more topics to talk about, but I think we're not that close to talking about it yet.

"So Falcom, do we have an agenda today?" I ask Falcom as I just remembered that my **Old Compound Bow** is being taken to be fixed after the IF suggests to me a cheap weapon shop. With this fact, we couldn't exactly go into the fields today.

"Well, since we couldn't go to the fields today with your weapon under repairs, we could work in the cities with some of the more mundane quests." Mundane quests? I never know we could do that. But wouldn't that mean we're stealing some people's job?

"Well, not exactly mundane per se." She smiles sheepishly and proceeds to continue. "They're jobs that require adventurer's more non-combat expertise and usually those jobs would even give the professionals some trouble."

"Or to cut corners for their budget." I immediately give that snide remark without thinking and Falcom looks at me as if I'm crazy. "What? Did I just hit the mark again?"

Falcom shakes her head. "No, it's just it would be somewhat true in Lastation. But in Planeptune, doing such action would result in fines."

So, in Planeptune they don't tolerate businesses cutting corners at all. It feels foreign to me since, in my world, a lot of companies would cut corners when the budget is too much. Regardless, it's a piece of interesting information I would keep in mind.

 ***Ding Dong***

"I'll go get it." Falcom nods then proceed to clean up the table while I get the door. The bell rings again and I am slightly annoyed by it. "I'm coming already!" I open the door and find RED, Arthur, and Cheekama are at the front door.

"Good morning Helli, sorry for our intrusion." Cheekama greets me politely while everyone makes their way into the Guild Home. I make way for them and while they're passing by, I yelp as I feel someone touch my butt.

I turn to the culprit, which I can tell is RED. "Not funny RED." I glare at her and then the rest of the girls turn to me, wondering what happened. RED realize what she had done and quickly apologize to me.

"S-sorry." She said to me. I linger my gaze for a moment then just sigh while scratching the back of my head. "Just don't do it next time please."

A beat. "But you have such a nice ass."

"I don't." I immediately retort her and proceed to lead them to the living room. The living room consists of a grey mid-century modern sofa facing the holographic 70-inch tv (how in the world did they afford that?) and four single couches, two on each side of the sofa forming a semi-circle.

Arthur and RED sit on the sofa while Cheekama, who is on Arthur's shoulder, jumps off her and sits on the armrest. Falcom and I sit next to each other on the left side's single couches.

"So girls, what do you think we should do since my weapon is being fixed?" I ask them.

"We can do this to find quests." RED takes out a red smartphone with gold outline on the side. I don't know what the brand is, but I can bet it would be something like 'Nep-Phone'. Everyone including me flocks around her while she scrolls through a list of… I think they are the quests.

"That's a lot of quests," I mutter and the girls nod. "Hey RED, why don't we sort the quests into something specific?" I point it out and she did just so.

After sorting through the list, we have quite several E Rank quests available for us. Some seem to be easier than the others and most of the quest range from looking for missing animal (seriously?) to demolition job.

While they do not provide as much reward as the kill quest we did yesterday, I think these jobs can be helpful for winding down from an intense mission.

As RED continue to scroll down, Cheekama seems to notice a suitable quest and stops her. She taps the quest she found, and the details are shown.

"I think we can do this quest. It seems easy enough for us to do and it has a reasonable reward."

And the details are as follows.

 **[Request for investigating our game's unending leaking of footages. – From GameMaker]**

 **[Recently our newest game had its footage leaked throughout the internep and while we had extensively stopped all the previous leaks, it seems to not stop anytime soon. Please help us to find this culprit.]**

 **[Reward: 1500 Credits]**

Investing leaked footages of a new game huh. I could guess this is not the first time it happened but from the details given, perhaps the company hired some White Cap hackers to deal with the issue, but I guess it didn't work at all.

But there is one issue among all of us…

"Who here had done a computer investigation before?" I ask everyone since I never did one before.

No one speaks up and we all go into an awkward silence. "No one did it before," I said with a deadpan expression. While I couldn't blame them for never doing it, I can't help but feel a slight disappointment from them.

"… we can still try." Arthur tries to stay optimistic, trying to find something good in this situation.

"And what if we fail? We might need to face a penalty." Cheekama points it out to her. It takes a second for her to think about what she said, and she facepalms. "I… should've thought about it."

"I think we can still do it. I had done investigations before, so it shouldn't too bad." Falcom nod at RED and she accepts the quest. After that, we are given the location of the meeting and all of us prepare ourselves to go.

"So, we got a case of game leaking. Why didn't the CPU help in this matter actually?"

"It's Lady Purple Heart we are talking about. If you know her well enough you can connect the dots." Falcom reply and I immediately understand what she means now. We left the house and begin to make our way to our destination: Neotendo.


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to IF and CH. Only the OC and this story belong to me._

 _With that said, please enjoy._

 _Fun note: This is the shortest chapter I've written in my entire life. No joke_

* * *

We arrive at a large building with a red and white sign written ' **Neotendo** '. I can't help but resist the urge to laugh or giggle at the name. As far as I know, Neotendo is basically a renamed Nintendo. So, if this is the case then Blanc should've been this company's worker as she is the personification of Wii.

But I am getting sidetrack now. We walk into the building and reach the reception. The receptionist, like many people I've met before, is a woman. She busily worked on the holographic computer in front of her.

"Excuse me," I approach the woman to get her attention. "We're from the Guild and we just received your company's request." RED shows the quest detail in her phone to the receptionists. The woman looks up and after a few seconds, she nods and made a call.

"Morning sir, the Guild is looking for you." She pauses then nods before ending the call. She gestures us to the right towards the elevators. "The CEO would like to meet all of you. Just go to the 10th floor and then turn left. You should be able to see another receptionist there too."

"Thank you very much." We follow the directions given and made our way to the CEO's office.

* * *

 **Day 2.2: Troubles in Neotendo. Begin the investigation.**

* * *

We call the elevator which has a window facing the city. As we go higher, I look over the city and be admired by it. I can't help but wonder if it is possible for my world to reach this level with the limitations of resources.

"You seem to never see this before." I turn to Falcom and then back to the city view. Well, she is right. I never have seen the real Planeptune cityscape before. Though I can't help but be suddenly reminded I still haven't told them where I live before this.

Especially since they seem to not mention I didn't have basic survival necessities before coming to this world.

"Well, I live somewhere remote for most of my life. If anything, I have never been to any of the nations before." I smoothly lie through my teeth. Everyone got interested in my story now, I guess I need to build up my story through this now.

"My father barely comes home but when he would he'll bring something from the city." Well, more like the country. "Most of the time he would bring games and nice clothes for my family. But other than that, I never left the town before."

"What about monster problems?" Cheekama asks. Makes sense since in the outskirt there are a lot of monsters. If anything, I think this world is like many other worlds where monsters infest every corner of the world.

Especially the once former entertainment places that become a dungeon.

"There were almost no monster problems at all," I answer honestly this time, but next would be another lie again. "The town is built in a place where only very high-level monsters can reach there. But it doesn't happen usually since they would be somewhat exhausted by coming there. Most of the time the defense system would take care of them."

"Wow… if that is the case why haven't I passed by it or heard of it?" I momentarily glance at the floor display. We're on the 5th floor now. I shift my gaze back to Falcom, who is the one asks me. "Consider how obscure we are, I don't blame you. Even if we are to go there now…" I stop my sentence as I feel something is a little wrong.

I know my home is safe and sound but… what happened to it before I come here. Something happened before my arrival. I know it through my intuition and gut feeling, but I seem to forget something.

What the hell is this? Selective amnesia? What kind of stupid laser guided cliché is this?

"Something wrong? You stopped for a moment." I notice Arthur got close to me and I jump back a little. "Oh uh… nothing just… remembered something bad."

Everyone looks at me for a moment then immediately panics. "O-oh, I'm so sorry to remind you something you don't to recall." Wait, for what? Hold on, why did they think… shit, my thoughtless phrasing.

I repeatedly say no to them while shaking my hand. "You didn't mean it. I mean nothing bad happened to the village but just… something did happen, and I have to get out of there quickly with almost nothing with me."

The girls still look somewhat down. Oh dear, how can I salvage this? "The village is still safe and peaceful. I only leave because of a scuffle between me and my family." I wing this and then realize it feels right. Did a scuffle happen between my family and me? I don't know. "But if you want to someday I can bring all of you there."

The girls look more hopeful this time and I let out a sigh I didn't know I'm holding. RED approach me with excitement and look up with… shining eyes? "Really?" She sounds very hopeful as she stares at me. As much as I want to say I can't, I can't say no to her.

"Yeah," I nod at her. "One day I might bring all of you there." RED's face becomes so brighten up I would think she is a kid. Well, she kind of acts like one if I think about it.

 **[Through your brief interaction with {Crystalline}, you gain +9 LXP with everyone.]**

 **[Congratulations, Lily Rank between you and Falcom has risen to Rank 2!]**

 **[Congratulations, Lily Rank between you and RED has risen to Rank 2!]**

A rise in rank huh. Consider I got 1 LXP with RED before and 6 LXP with Falcom, I think it's safe to say that I can rank up when I hit 10 LXP thresholds. Though to let RED of all people to be rank 2 is slightly worrying.

Though is it straight or gay if I date a girl when I become a girl?

The elevator made a 'ding' noise when we reach the 10th floor. The door opens, and we are greeted with a nice-looking corridor. While short, the walls are decorated with a large stone tablet with some woman and girls with wings of different shape and sizes. There are 5 females on each side on each side flying towards the CEO's office.

I can only assume they are CPUs, or rather, former CPUs. As far as I know, only CPUs has those kinds of wings, with the last few of them having traditional angel wings. These girls carry various weapons, one of them even use a shield.

The door that is at the end of the corridor has a large logo with the company's name. The font looks very uncanny compared to my world's counterpart. If anything, I think the CPUs in the tablet are Lowee CPUs.

At the left side of the door, there is a receptionist's desk. A woman is standing in front of the door, she is the one the receptionist at the lower floor told us. When we are near the door, she greets us.

"Hello, I assume all of you are the ones who would like to see the CEO?"

"Yes, we are." The woman nods then open the door to let us into the office. We got in one by one and once all of us are inside, the door behind us closes.

The office room has a large window facing the Bassilicom and the city, showing how high we are. I feel slight nausea from seeing it, but I managed to keep my fortitude in check to stay upright.

The floor is made of white tiles, maybe marble, and in the middle, there is a blue carpet. The carpet is surrounded by four leather sofas that I couldn't recognize. They look almost like normal sofas, but they looked lower than the usual ones.

In front of the large window are a large deck and a tall, white office chair. The table is strewn with documents and some empty cups. There is also a table lamp and a holographic computer, which has multiple screens being shown but I can't see what are the content.

Seating on the chair is a young man who is busily working on the various holographic screens before closing them with a swipe of a finger. The young man is an Asian with a nice complexation and a bob black hair where the bangs are split. He wears a pair of square glasses with white frames. Finally, he wears a neat formal uniform with a blue and white tie.

I can't help but stare at him for a moment. He looks so much like someone that I… no, the whole gaming industry knows. The man changed the industry drastically and is well liked by everyone.

"Satoru Iwata?" I hear myself mumble that name out. I realize what I mumbled and shut myself up quickly.

The Iwata look-alike looks up to us and then stands up. "Are all of you the ones who accepted our request?" His voice sounds professional, which I won't be surprised. But I feel that the real Iwata wouldn't exactly use this kind of voice.

"Yes, we are." Arthur chooses to be the one step up and talk. She sounds quite professional too, probably from her training as royalty as she might have to deal with politics if she becomes the only King of Britain in… the Million Arthur world.

I can feel a thousand head slaps by someone from that sentence alone.

"I see." He smiles and takes out his hand to offer her a handshake. "I am Sabastian Iwata, the CEO of Neotendo. It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Arthur takes his offer and shakes his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you too. I am Million Arthur, one of the members of Crystalline."

"Please have a seat and we'll talk about my request." All of us sits down and made ourselves comfortable. Once we are fully seated, Sabastian begins to talk.

"Before we start, may I ask do all of you aware of the new game **Ultra Fight Sisters Ultimate** for **Lowee Switch** that would be released in a few days?" He asks us. All the girls say 'Yes' while I merely nod. From the title itself, I am sure this game is the counterpart to the popular game in my world.

"Very well, I shall tell you what is happening. You know that we had multiple leaks of this new game and after many efforts, we couldn't find the root of the problem. We had tried finding a hacker but…"

"There is none." I finish the sentence for the man. In the back of my mind, I know it is rude, but I could care less. I have never been great with business to begin with due to how I talk to them.

He nods to the conclusion I made and then continues. "Yes, and I begin to suspect that it is someone from the inside who did this."

"So, you would want us to do an investigation to see if your claim is true?" Arthur asks him.

"As much as I do not wish to be true, this is the only logical theory I can think of." The CEO sound slightly anguished when he says this. I take a deep breath and lightly bit my tongue. I don't like how he sounds. I can tell he had plenty of trusts to his workers, only for one of them to betray him.

"Very well, we will find out the culprit for you," Arthur reassures the man. As soon as she says that, I got a notification.

 **[Quest obtained: Search the culprit]**

"I cannot thank all of you enough. If you wish to examine our resources or ask questions, I would do everything in my power to assist too." The man bows and stands up from his seat.

"May I see your HR reports and, if possible, some of the developer's personal data?" I request the man for them. I have the feeling that if I can see the reports I determine the culprit base on it. I can still clearly remember my mother told me she had an interview with someone who has a disturbing history.

The rest is history.

"I would allow that. Just ask the receptionists outside my office to the HR office. I'll ask the HR manager to give you access to the reports and the personal data."

The girls also made their requests, RED asking the permission moving around the office, Arthur wish to interrogate the developers alongside Cheekama and Falcom wants to check the database of all the computers.

All of them are given permission to do so. With our roles set, we are ready to go. When we come out, the receptionists tell us the direction of our destination.

"Do you think we can do this?" RED asks us. I don't think she doubt us but only asks us out of obligation perhaps.

"We sure can do it." Arthur smiles and steps out of the elevator on the 6th floor. "Good luck everyone."

One by one, we have gone to our separate destination with mine on the 4th floor. When I step out of the elevator, I am quickly led to the HR office by one of the office workers who is waiting for me. When I got into the HR office, a woman is waiting for me there.

"Are you the one?" She asks. I nod, and she proceeds to show me various holographic screens, all of them about the most recent HR reports. "These are the information you requested. If you need any help please tell me. Also, please sit there." She points at the seat in front of her and we take our own seat.

"Alright, let's count up their sins," I mumbled to myself as I begin to analyze all the information and taking mental notes.


End file.
